Reflection 003: 8 Ways to Process Grief in Prayer

A Teaching to Guide You in the Inner Work of Lent

This week, we are exploring 8 ways to process grief in prayer.

Key Takeaways

• The experience of grief is normal. The Scriptures tell us there is a time to grieve.

• The work of Spiritual Formation is learning to hold in tension the blessings and disappointments of life, finding both as spaces of God’s loving and transformative presence.

• Underneath prolonged grief, there typically is an internal script operating in our lives. Prayerfully uncovering this story and centering ourselves instead in the story of God is the spiritual work of renewal.

• Religious platitudes are a form of grief denial and repression. Don’t do that.

• The practice of gratitude replaces victim mindsets.

• Healing is in living a life worth living, creating a world we desire to see.

• 90s R&B songs taught us all the cathartic practice of giving full bodily and vocal expression to our grief.

• Asian American men who were given images of stoic masculinity are really really bad at processing grief prayerfully.